Outlook for Android and iOS Picks Up New Management Capabilities

Businesses that have deployed Outlook for Android and iOS can now manage those devices using new mobile device management (MDM) capabilities in Office 365 or Microsoft Intune, plus mobile application management (MAM) capabilities that are unique to Intune. With this update, Microsoft claims that its mobile Outlook apps now offer the leading set of controls for protecting corporate email and calendaring data on mobile devices.

Here’s what’s new.

Requires Office 365 or Intune on the backend. To access this functionality, you need to be using a commercial version of Office 365, which offers built-in core MDM functionality, or Microsoft Intune, the software giant’s cloud-based PC and device management service. Intune users will gain a superset of the capabilities in Office 365, adding MAM functionality as well as additional MDM features.

Conditional access. You can ensure that Office 365 email can be accessed only on phones and tablets that are managed by your company and are in a healthy state, Microsoft says. Users enroll by signing in to their account and then Outlook ensures that the device meets your device health and security rules before granting access.

Intune MAMfunctionality. If you’re using Intune, you gain access to additional MAM capabilities, such as the ability to restrict actions such as Cut, Copy, Paste, and Save As to apps that are not managed by Intune, apply MAM policies only to work accounts (ignoring personal accounts), prevent screenshot captures of private corporate data, require encryption of corporate data, and more.